AMANULLAH

On one occasion there was a rare dinner party of ten
people in the Royal dining-room. They were all magi-
cians. Amanullah showed them his repertoire. The
magicians, who thought him no mean producer of
rabbits out of hats, playing-cards out of waistcoats, and
a fair juggler of balls, reciprocated with various of their
simpler devices, many of which were later exhibited for
the entertainment of wild tribes in a forlorn corner of
the East* And going back to the fairy books, there is
surely a faint resemblance to the cheerful kings of olden
days, who summoned before them the Court magicians
to tickle the Royal fancy after a heavy meal,

It could be wished, however, that the then Lord
Mayor of Liverpool had appreciated fairy stories more,
If he had, he might have enjoyed more fully the pro-
duction of an ace of spades from behind his ear in the
middle of a civic reception ; he might have returned
the compliment with a neat handspring in the middle
of the ceremonial red carpet, and thus have established
the amity between Afghanistan and the Mersey City.
But the joke failed. When Amanullah transferred his
tricks from the dining-room of Claridge's Hotel to the
civic reception in the North of England, he reckoned
without the unassailable dignity of the Lord Mayor's
chain of office.

Amanullah, however, was by no means disheartened.
He did not know that a king must curb his sense of
Jiumour-

The world might be a better place if kings played
parlour tricks on State occasions,

One. of Amanullah's personal successes, however, was
with the Duchess of York. At a public dinner party, it
was noticed that consternation and alarm showed on
his face when faced with a harmless glass of lemonade
poured from a long jug* The King smelt it, quizzed it,

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